Review: Stacey Dooley on Luton’s fanatics

Stacey Dooley is presented as someone who was plucked from working as a shop assistant at a perfume counter at Luton airport to presenting an investigative programme, titled “Stacey Dooley Investigates”, for BBC Three, their digital-only youth-oriented channel. She first appeared for them in their show “Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts”, in which a group of British youths, including Dooley, went to India to live and work alongside local garment workers, but her “strong interest in the nature of third world labour laws” got her a documentary series of her own. In this show, she returned to her home town of Luton to “find out why it is known as the extremist capital of Britain”. (The programme can be watched, if you’re in the UK, for the next five days. More: Engage.)

Dooley’s aim was to interview people on both sides of the “divide” and made several attempts to contact Stephen Lennon, the leader of the so-called English Defence League which was formed in Luton in 2009 in reaction to an al-Muhajiroun demonstration against a parade by soldiers recently returned from Afghanistan. She tells us that she knew Lennon while growing up and cannot believe that he is now the leader of the EDL, as he never struck her as a racist. He was due to appear in a discussion on BBC Three Counties Radio, but failed to show up because he had been arrested, so the presenter made for Bury Park, the area where most of the Muslims live in Luton, where she found that an al-Muhajiroun demo was in full swing. (Or maybe not, because she somehow found time to change her clothing on the way from trying to catch Lennon at his tanning shop to trying to speak to those demonstrators.)

The demonstration turned out to be against the arrest of a local Muslim woman whose husband had set off a bomb in Stockholm in 2010. She was filmed standing in a bright orange dress in the midst of a “crowd” (of fewer than 100 people) shouting “British police go to hell” among other things, at one point telling a woman in niqaab that “no real Muslim wants anyone to burn in hell” (clearly quoting from a book she’d recently read) and when the Muslim woman objected, she said, “you can’t pick and choose”. Generally, she was sensitive in her manner of dress, wearing a headscarf to go into the mosque and was always shown wearing a long skirt, but in that scene she clearly tried to distinguish herself from them, in one scene standing and grimacing in front of a bunch of women in black. She put on a show of emotion while at the rally (after interviewing Anjem Choudhary), saying initially that she did not know how to describe how she was feeling, then saying she was “gutted”. Most Muslims regard that group with contempt, and they have a history of disrupting other Muslim protest movements.

Later on, she interviewed someone at the main local mosque, who noticeably avoided agreeing with her that the “go to hell” mob were not Muslims, merely that they were a different group from them. She also interviewed other local Muslims, and concentrated on “ordinary” Muslims, like her old Asian school friend, rather than leaders, so the efforts of Muslims to counter al-Muhajiroun (especially after an unrelated Muslim place of worship was targeted for an arson attack not long after the 2009 demo) was not even mentioned. She interviewed two local niqaabis who were not connected with al-Muhajiroun (both of whom wore their black niqaabs over a brightly coloured headscarf), and did a walkabout in niqaab with them, and found that she got a lot of hostile stares when she walked out of the Muslim-dominated Bury Park into the town centre, where there are a lot more white people. She said she could understand why those people preferred to stay in Bury Park, as Muslims were commonly accused of “segregating” themselves by so doing.

What was quite disturbing was the interviews with her old white friends, several of whom believed that the EDL had legitimate grievances including the suspicions that Muslims want to enforce Shari’ah law on everyone. He interviewed Kev Carroll, the “EDL’s number two”, in the same golf club where she had arranged to meet Lennon (who again failed to show up), and he wore a T-shirt saying “Infidel” and below it “Kafir” (which means the same thing) in Arabic and alleged that “black, white, Chinese, Sikh, Hindu - everyone gets on like a house on fire in Luton except for the Islamic community, because they do not want to integrate … and they admit that themselves”. Another Muslim she meets, however, tells her that Shari’ah law is the whole of the rules of Islam (and that someone praying is practising Shari’ah, for example) and that the punishment of stoning is only carried out if four men see the actual penetration, so it is meant as a deterrent and almost never to be carried out.

The problem is that she allowed the white interviewees to over-exaggerate the influence of the Muhajiroun and the grievances of the EDL. The idea that Bury Park could ever be mistaken for another country is nonsense given the British road signs, cars (not a single rickshaw in sight) and architecture and that most of the inhabitants are British Asians (and some other Muslims who have moved in seeking a mostly Muslim community), not foreign immigrants. The only thing that makes it look “foreign” is the high proportion of non-white people: such a thing would never be said of any district where a large white minority (Polish or Jewish, for example) lived, and it is entirely natural that people who share a culture, or a set of dietary or clothing requirements, should seek to live together for convenience, and all the more so if the people they might be expected to integrate with are racist. The perception of hostile “foreign enclaves” comes from the repeated prominent reporting of al-Muhajiroun demonstrations and even public statements by their former leader, Omar Bakri Muhammad, in the tabloid press as well as attacks on Muslim women’s dress habits on the front page of some tabloids (notably the Daily Express), particularly after Jack Straw’s comments about Muslim women who came to his surgery. The fact of inflammatory and prejudicial media coverage of any issue involving Muslims after 9/11 (and particularly the July 2005 bombings in London) was not even mentioned.

The programme did show that most Muslims in Luton are not al-Muhajiroun, that some do integrate and that the majority are peaceful people who are just getting on with their lives. However, Dooley’s manner did grate and her shows of “shock” at a tiny demonstration were unconvincing given that such demonstrations have become a regular news fixture over the past few years (although much less so now that the Tory press has turned to demonising “welfare scroungers” since the change of government in 2010), and have happened in many other places besides Luton. No examination of the rise of the EDL is complete without investigation of what the white working-class constituency behind the EDL have been reading, and this programme did not even begin to do that.

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stacey interviewed muslims guys who stated themselves bury park is like living in a muslim country,(what does that mean)members of the muslim community had ample air time to state thier views,what does skin colour have to do with anything?islam is not a race of people,whats with pointing out the tone of peoples skin,no one chose to be born black brown or white,a belief is different you know that,im a christian,i worship in a church of all colours,so what! its what we say and how we act that counts,i can tell by your blogg your not a silly person or persons so why link race?aftre all islam tends to have its fair share of ginger white converts in luton,why they choose to follow an ex tax inspecter is beyond me,maybe they are lost sheep,psalm 23

Kuffar

Bury PArk isn’t like a muslim country despite the demographic. No religious freedoms, jsa, child benefit, democracy, free heathcare, support for asylum seekers etc in those countries.

Despite the hate that infects that area it’s still very much England.

John Dare

For all the faults apparent in the programme, it was encouraging to see Ms Dooley being fairly well balanced in her approach. Remember, this was a BBC3, youth orientated programme. In depth analysis may well have deterred it’s target audience from watching it and if any group needed to see this programme it is the youth; Muslim and Non Muslim. That is the demographic being targetted by etremists on all sides. I think Stacey overall did a good job.

anon.

As a former Lutonion, having grown up practically up the road from Bury Park, I wish there was a fairer representation of all the Muslims in Luton. There seemed to be a few young ladies sitting in the mosque, which were portrayed as the ‘moderate’, larger group of Muslims in the community. And Dooley’s friend, Ammarah, who again was the ‘moderate’ relaxed Muslim. What about the rest of us? Not ‘moderate’, and don’t want to be known as so-called average, liberal Muslim, but traditional Muslims, who follow the Middle Way, who are just as strict about our values and beliefs as the Salafi/AM’s, or even more so, as we’re not just excited by a simple political ideology.
The comparison seems to be drawn between very strict and quite ‘moderate’ ‘chilled out’ Muslims by birth. Great. Bland on both sides.

http://twitter.com/Julaybib Yakoub Islam

I despise the idea of youth programming led by someone ‘ordinary’ i.e. who hasn’t a clue investigating a serious issue. Programmes like this are dealing with sensitive issues and need to be properly thought through. A well educated young BBC researcher could have ensured a more in-depth and balanced coverage. This kind of thing perpetuates the illusion that you can get a grasp on what is happening in your hometown if you just chat to your mates, which is baloney.

CampbellH

Poison poison poison poison and BTW they are full of hate.

1crafts

Stacey realy sucks as an interviewer. Please all these issues are serious and important. Use a trained journalist!

NJ

Stacey, I think you were very calm ,and I praise your courage.
The video shows you asking questions to extremely rude and threaten people pretending to protest in peace. It is obvious they have another agenda~why do they really want us to hate and fear them? But you should behave while living in England. It is a Christian Country and we have values too.
Justice.

oh dear

I’m sorry but Stacey is one of the poorest interviewers I’ve ever come across. Majority of her so-called ‘investigative’ programmes are very poorly prepared and researched, most of the commentary focussing on what poor little Stacey sees, believes and imagines and don’t offer any real insight on the subject, just attempts to trivialize and scandalize it without getting to the real issues or consequences. Unbelievable that her programmes are on the BBC.

smartmind

Excellent review - spot on. Stacey is a bit dewey eyed and wet behind the ears conditioned by the ill-informed Islamphobic media. But she did as fair a job as she could for a naive person reliant on cliches.

modernredeye

Some of the male Muslims in the programme did not come ever well - refusing to shake her hand fo example and the talk of “Muslim countries”, the apparent suspicion of people being seen talking to a white woman.

Ladygold

Shaking a womens hand in mainstream Islam is forbidden. Which again shows she did not do any prep for this.